Feed grain

[ASRG]

The area I live in (east of Red Deer Alberta) pretty much limits what we can grow. Barley, some wheat(mostly CPS), canola and peas. We can't grow flax or lentils or corn or soybeans.
The best crops are barley and canola.
It used to be there were several hog barns in the area where you could sell all the barley you could produce....none of those barns are left.
The last several years all the barley in this area basically goes to feedlot alley at Lethbridge. If the XL plant closes there are going to be some of those feedlots closing their doors.
I wonder where we will sell our barley then? Will we have to truck it down to the feedlots in Iowa or Nebraska?

[ALLFARMER]

The ethanol plant at Red Deer?

[BreadWinner]

"WOW" Is all I can say. Living in eastern Sask. we grow the same crops as you and the all get bought up and used. Time to start looking around for a buyer and stop depending on feedlot alley to keep buying forever.

[ASRG]

Just wondering where do you sell your feed barley? Hog barns, feedlots, export?

[errolanderson]

Breadwinner . . . don't think you
realize how large and important feedlot
alley is to the Cdn barley market.

Picture Butte area is the key price
discovery for Cdn barley prices bar-
none. When the board was in total
control of exports, southern Alberta
consumed barley 10X greater than the
board export program. Board export
program was nothing more than shipping
our barley into Saudi Arabia for camel
feed where the Saudis re-distributed
through the middle east.

You hurt feedlot alley, you hurt the Cdn
barley market big-time. If XL goes down
affecting Alberta feedlots, you will
feel the hurt all the way into
Saskatchewan. And you will find it
difficult to find a home for your feed
as a result.

Just wait until the U.S. has a large
corn crop and the importance of the
Alberta feed market will stand out like
a sore thumb across the prairies.

[BreadWinner]

We haven't grown barley in 5 years, we got tired
of the malt game and subsidizing the livestock
industry with cheap feed barley. It's pretty easy to
get in a routine when farming and marketing. It
may not hurt to feel out other markets just in case
things start going south in feedlot alley. We have
learnt not to depend on the cheque always being
good living down the road from Bigsky.

[HappyFarmer]

Doubt you were subsidizing the beef industry 5
years ago bread. Remember a thing called
BSE?.....

[riders2010]

Sounds like xl is God in the alberta area, maybe that is why they felt they could do what ever they wanted without any consequences.

Should they open up and operate at any standard just so feed grains could get sold? just for jobs?

How about looking at alternatives, grow different crops, or look to other slaughter facilities, even different system of feeding where the animals aren.t up to their eyeballs in manure. Just a thought.

Find it interesting that in this whole mess no one is talking to consumers on what they think of this. Many people I talked to in town had no idea thousands of animals were all churned into one big hamburger at that place. Didn,t know either the way the inspection was done many not impressed. Arent they the ones that will dictate how this mess gets sorted out. if they don,t trust what is being done are they gonna buy beef?

Mr. Stewart from Sk. was the only one politically that seems to get the fact that the ball is being dropped in terms of the optics of this mess.

[ASRG]

riders: Was XL doing things wrong? Nilsson brothers operated the plant since 2009 without the CFIA raising a peep....were they operating a pig pen before September 3rd....when the first load was caught?
I don't know. I wasn't there....the CFIA inspectors were and they said it was all good!
We need an independent inquiry if we ever hope to learn what went wrong? Why aren't we getting one?

The feeding/packing industry in Alberta has evolved to what it is for a reason.....that was what worked? If we are going to fatten cattle on rustic pastures and process them in little slaughter houses someone is going to have to pay a lot more for that product? But wait....the consumer doesn't have to....they can eat chicken. Or if they prefer beef and Canadian beef is too costly they can buy cheaper products from the US or Australia?
Cargill and XL can compete for one reason......they are big and they can access cheap feedlot cattle. Without the huge feedlots and the big packers, we won't have much of a livestock industry in western Canada.
Now if I could just grow canola every year....!

[BreadWinner]

I'll correct myself, we weren't subsidizing the
cattle producer we we subsidizing the feedlot
industry. We were a 250 cow calf operation till
2007, got tired of working for free. All those
neighbors that didnt have cows received nice
cheques from the gov while we got none for
working all year long. It sure did not pay to be a
mixed farmer before or during BSE. Now we just
wait at the trough just like everyone else. If we
have a crop failure they can't tell us that our cattle
made up for our loss on the grain side. During
BSE the crops were better so they told us the
better grain side made up for our loss on the
cattle side. Gov programs sure didn't benifit those
that went ad diversified.